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Why are the people most concerned with traditional family values so committed to Donald Trump?
That question generates new headlines every time the president faces a new scandal.
Trump has been married three times, after all.
He doesnt know anything about the Bible.
21 women have accused him of sexual assault.
But white evangelicals hold fast to him through it all.
WithThe Family, Moss has produced original reporting that deserves urgent attention.
It has no problem, Moss tells us, with bad men.
In the decades since, the Familys associates have formed working relationships with some of the worlds bloodiest dictators.
At least one associate former Michigan representative Mark Siljander did time in prison in connection to these overseas activities.
And Trump is just the strong man theyve waited to serve.
Most evangelicals have nothing to do with the Family.
If you worship power, the pursuit of it becomes a sacrament.
The Trump presidency is not blasphemy, then, but Gods will.
Why make this series now, years after Jeff publishedThe FamilyandC Street?
Jesse Moss: I had not read Jeffs book when it came out.
I wasnt even aware of the Fellowship.
One was Maria Butina [and] the Russian-spy story exploding at the National Prayer Breakfast.
The second was digging into the story of Robert Aderholt in Romania.
Is it actually proof of a logically consistent, underlying ideology?
That God uses tools.
We see now the rise of far-right authoritarian governments worldwide.
The Family and Fellowship associates have been really active in a lot of these countries.
Should we assign them any credit for that phenomenon?
They were looking to recruit a foreign leader.
They wanted an anti-communist leader.
The Family became the conduit through which they did that work.
It wasnt that the Reagan administration was going to support democracy in Uganda and the Family convinced them otherwise.
The Family made it possible in that case, as it did with Senator Chuck Grassley in Somalia.
Or maybe that is, in fact, the purpose of the framework to begin with.
But its bigger than the Fellowship.
Its a kind of alliance of interests.
I think that those authoritarian relationships are a threat to our democracy, and its not theoretical.
Sharlet: Youre probably familiar with the tradition of muscular Christianity in American Christianity.
We see this idea that if Jesus was alive today, hed be a Navy SEAL.
Certainly, the Family doesnt invent this kind of supermacho theology.
It was helpful to see why you might find refuge in this group and in this movement.
Theres a real stark divide there.
Those things play out in the world and thats why it matters.
Only time will tell whether that commitment is real.
As for diversity, theres this secular liberal fantasy that the Christian right has always been like the KKK.
The Family decided in the 70s that they were going to make their own Black Panthers.
And they did it.
They called them the Black Buffers.
All white-led, but you wouldnt see the white men.
They bought the matching dashikis.
They were supposed to infiltrate Black Power organizations and report back.
Thats the diversity that theyre offering.
Trump really does embody so much about the Family.
Hes got this swaggering masculinity.
Someone who will reorder society in the way that the Family wants.
Is that conspiratorial on my part, or is that their thinking?
Sharlet: Thats certainly not conspiratorial.
Thats very explicit in their rhetoric.
Trump is not the endgame, but he is, I think, a huge pivot.
Its a very, very long game.
Sharlet: Theyre post-millennials.
Certainly there are pre-millennials involved, but the Family is about building the 1,000-year kingdom of God on Earth.
Its really important to understand.
This is not something were speculating about.
Sharlet: When I wroteThe Family, I had a chapter called The F Word.
The F-word was fascism.
I said they are not fascist.
I said theres more than one kind of authoritarianism under the sun.
I said fascism is impossible in America and American fundamentalism will prevent it.
And I think I was wrong.
Were not there yet, but we see the potential.
We see just how quickly the theology of the Wolf King can lead us down that road.
This interview has been edited for clarity and condensed for length.
